islandguy

I work extensively with Thai masseuses. Here in Samui, possibly the most expensive place in Thailand for regular Thai workers, some of the better massage shops and smaller resorts are paying 20,000 baht a month without a service charge. Hotel massage staffs make less than that in salary, but have a guaranteed service charge. The service charge at a few resorts is high enough for them to do very well, especially with tips. Yes, the desire to work overseas is widespread, but many of the masseuses I know that have gone overseas have not done well, many have been blatantly exploited. Some of the top masseuses working overseas do very well, but eventually want to return home. While the Thai brand for massage is strong in many places, cheaper competition from Bali on the world market is already happening. The chain mentioned in the article also has a higher tier of staff that do more therapeutic treatments, they get paid more. The industry and attitudes about massage as a profession have changed quite a bit in Thailand the last 10 years, and more middle class people and university graduates are entering the field. The best hotel jobs require English skills. And while illegal extras are widespread both here and abroad, I am talking strictly about legitimate massage in my comments.

While the songtaew fleet has been upgraded with more new trucks, being in one with a leaky exhaust system spewing foul smelling and toxic gases into the passenger compartment still happens. They also go very slowly so as not to miss any potential customers. Fun to try sometimes, a must for a new visitor, but I am happier to take the minivans from the ferry on Samui. At Donsak some minivans are speeding unsafely, or stopping at will for personal reasons, or leaving you far from where they said they were going so you have to buy another ticket. I try to avoid them at Donsak.

Let's look more closely at the suggestion to take a survey and see how many Thais asked for the answer to the multiplication of 6 times 7 could do this in their head. In America learning your 'times tables' (multiplying all the numbers from 1 times 1 to 12 times 12 or 15 times 15) was downgraded in importance as something every student had to do in the 1960's and 1970's in favor of what was called the new math. Very controversial at the time. Many Americans now are not good at doing arithmetic in their heads and students in schools there are often allowed to use calculators. Since Thai public schools do use rote learning, shouldn't they actually be better at knowing 6 times 7 than Americans currently are?

I do notice that the Thais I teach can remember more steps in a sequence shown to them than my Western students can and attribute this to the rote learning method. So why haven't they memorized their times tables?

I lived for 4 years in a place owned by a lovely local family. I only paid 3 months in advance despite being able to get a larger discount for longer prepayment because I wanted to be able to move if local conditions or my own situation changed. 2 years ago I had a chance to rent a nicer house. I had two months left on my 3 months and paid double rent. So I didn't save the most possible money but I kept my options open. If I had gotten the larger discount, I may not have moved to the better house because of the longer time committed to the first house. Or a karaoke bar might have moved next door..........

My (Thai) wife enjoyed Yellowstone immensely. Probably her favorite place to visit ever. We pretty much saw every large mammal there. But I kept getting a shudder every time she enthused about her hoped for close look at a grizzly bear!

Rist8to also sells imported beans (the most famous ones that every coffee aficionado knows). I think they also roast those beans themselves. They are really fanatic about it all. When we complimented the young man (who looked like he drank an enormous amount of his product) who had made our excellent lattes with very elaborate foam designs, it turned out he was the barrista champion of Thailand. My taste seems to have changed tho, I now prefer the best Thai coffees (when skillfully roasted and fresh) to my old favorites. That is, except for the superb Blue Mountain coffee my old coffee seller in Honolulu had last year. It really is in a class all by itself, and the casual use of just the name 'Blue Mountain' here in Thailand always brings a smile.......

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Worth a try if you can find one nowadays. The traditional coffee and tea cart at the side of the road in the evenings. Strong thai coffee strained through what looks like a cotton sock. Great if you like strong coffee and condensed milk which i do. Often you can order steamed soft bread with the green pandan sauce and eat it with tiny forks. This is an exotic traditional thai coffee experience for any coffee lover visting Thailand. Seems to have gone out of fashion with the locals though.

They used to sell great cafe boran on the streets of Bangkok many years ago. The stuff you find these days is so old and stale from sitting around all day because very few people drink it now so there is little turnover. I never liked the sweetened milk so always ordered coffee without it; only regular milk if they had it. Never tried the bread dough with green sauce...never will.

Yup....a thing of the past pretty much.....

Good idea to ask them not to add the usual instant coffee powder to the coffee booran as that is at best, harsh.

My neighbor just returned after something like 6 weeks away, during which he left his pickup truck at the the Surathanee airport. When he returned, his truck wasn't there, it had been towed by the authorities. My information is third hand, that is wife to wife, and his wife was not on the trip with him. However, she did function to translate (by phone) and assist him in Surat while she was in Samui, so this one piece of information seems pretty sure - park there a long time and you may have problems. This may be related to a brief upsurge of vigilance after the incident at Central Festival, and maybe will be soon forgotten, but just sharing the info. My neighbor seemingly had a bunch of further problems with the truck, which might be related to the towing, or to the long time not moving, but I'm not sure about them, so won't go into detail. It did seem that the airport authorities were under the impression somehow that his truck was there even longer than it was, so I am not going to worry about one or even two weeks myself.

If anyone finds out about new regulations there, please let us know. Also, what is happening with parking at Samui Airport? Last time I checked they had closed the pay lot at departures, but you could park as before unregulated (and maybe blocked in when you returned) near the entrance to the departures area where all the van shuttles hang out.

7-11 doesn't protect franchisers with an exclusive sales territory like you would think. We have some on Samui that are literally across the street from each other. Makes me consider them as not very caring for the people who invest in their stores. The closest one to me however, seems to have been a winner for the people running the store it replaced - they leased them the space they had their largish mom and pop store in and then renovated their building next door and continued in business with a variety of goods 7-11 doesn't carry and (very slightly) lower prices on beer and cigs. Brilliant move!

Done this before.

Better you fly in to Singapore in the morning and fly out on the evening. Forget messing about trying to get a cheap hotel and cheap taxi. There's no such thing in Singapore.

Mass transit from airport (train) very good and not so expensive. New and modern hostels (more like Japanese style, still sharing a bathroom) good quality and relatively cheap. Still, Singapore is expensive, and not exciting, so misterphil's advice is good. But why not take a look while you are there?

Having done all three main routes now, I prefer the Krabi bypass route by car. Longer but all open two lane separated highway. On a motorbike in good weather the route using the bridge over the river and route as shown above is certainly shorter, and unless the weather was bad enough to make it less safe to be in traffic on the one lane each direction roads would probably favor that way. If you look at the map and know the numbers of the roads it shouldn't be confusing.

Each time we have entered the US my wife has been given 6 months stay despite telling them that she would be staying a shorter time, with a return on a round trip ticket already booked for a date less than 5 weeks after entry. She originally obtained a 10 year visa for a work trip that never materialized. When she applied for the visa she had already gone to multiple countries for work and owned a home, so not too surprising they gave her a visa. On the most recent trip the original visa was in one passport with her maiden name, she had a second passport with her name changed to her married name, and since that one had expired after 5 years, she was actually traveling on a third passport. She had all three passports and supporting documents. Entered without any problems or confusion, to my surprise. Don't be put off by the many bad stories shared by some posters.

Went last week, and still things to buy even though I was pretty late. They are holding it every Tuesday, according to one of the organizers. He is my former landlord, so I'm sure of what he said. Even had organic eggs, so you can get away from the commercial ones.

Sounds good, many thanks for the clarification.

Thanks for your reply. How do I get from the domestic arrival area in BKK to the international transit area? I would think I would need to pass through Thai Immigration.

A flight schedule change has led to me having a short connection in Bangkok between arriving on a PG flight from Samui and departing on a second PG flight to Laos (now one hour and twenty five minutes between flights). The reservation agent at their office in Chaweng said it would be long enough and that I could not only check my bags through from Samui (expected, no surprise) but could also go through Immigration on Samui and not have to do it in Bangkok. They are usually quite good at that office, but it is hard for me to understand how this would work. Anybody here on the forum done this before?

The last time I talked to Tuangyot, a few years ago, he had one or two used kayaks he was using for rentals that he was willing to sell.

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So, if you have experience in this, you should just buy the catamaran and NokAir tickets separately to save some bucks. Although it is possible to call and book the catamaran in advanced, there is really no need to because there's always space. You can buy the catamaran tickets at their counter at the pier in Nathon just before you're gonna travel or buy at Lompraya counter in both URT and NST airports.

So I thought also, but when I flew into Surat yesterday at 12:30, Lomphraya was sold out! Beware the FMP........

Some of the connecting times you see look very tight. However, the airport only gets a few flights and most of the departing passengers are on the same bus/minivan you are, or similar. They are ready to get you on the flight because they know you are coming.

They are driving themselves down as far South as Samui now. Saw two Chinese groups of two cars/SUVs at Donsak yesterday. Not the first I've seen on Samui either.

Perhaps a pardon will let them get back into politics? (Whoever 'they' are).

Thanks PoorSucker. The first link was pretty funny, every post except one on the comments portion was for a taxi/tour. One offered German speaking guide(s), none had any prices. Pretty smart, really. The last one showed a selfie of a young woman whose profile said she worked at KFC. Do you prefer chicken legs or breast, K. Cruise?

Cruises with a port call in Vietnam or Singapore prior to Samui seem to have 36 hours between the port calls. Second link seems to show 57 port calls this year (hard to be sure without a clicker), with multiple days of 3 ships the same day and one day with 4!

Also thanks to Roo, the previous threads posted answer some more of my questions. Cruising in a huge sardine can is not for me, but the load on the islands infrastructure should be lighter than other categories of tourist, especially at the airport.

Still no idea about port fees, tender logistics details, or the really juicy scenario of one of these monsters stuck on a sand bar. Would they send down the aircraft carrier after a few days

The no brainer here is to sign up for their frequent flyer program. Even with the fees the award flights end up being an 8-10% overall discount and when they have a points sale (usually twice a year for 50%, this year a 70%!! sale) even better. I think you also are prioritized when on a wait list.

And I know at least two Thais who have Resident cards.

Or arrange with me to pick you up, my rates are astonishing but I'll get you there

You once offered to give me a ride for free - that was truly astonishing (and very generous, thanks)!

Sure seems to me that one of the local bus companies has a monopoly on transport out of Surat Thani airport. Is this true?